COLOR BLIND

Renaissance*

Black and white and noir all over, Renaissance is an uninspired amalgamation of forms. It intends to garner the blockbuster appeal of a gritty futuristic action adventure, with a look that resembles A Scanner Darkly filtered through the monochromatic design of Sin City. I’m an admirer of both films, but not solely for their graphic bells and whistles; one draws from comic book savant Frank Miller’s understanding of the well-worn hardboiled detective yarn, while the other sternly rebukes the country’s war on drugs. Renaissance has no such muscle. Featuring imagery seemingly produced by an antique television set with a busted contrast dial, it’s a bleak construction that’s at worst incoherent and at best mildly entertaining.

Continue reading about Renaissance in the New York Press...